Instruction for Authors

Structure

Your paper should be compiled in the following order:

title page;

abstract;

keywords;

main text :

introduction,

materials and methods,

results,

discussion;

acknowledgments;

declaration of interest statement;

references;

appendices (as appropriate);

table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages);

figures;

figure captions (as a list).

Word Limits

Please include a word count for your paper.

A typical paper for this journal should be, inclusive of: A typical paper for this journal should be between 5000 and 8000 words (13000 words for review articles), inclusive of the abstract, tables, references, figure captions, footnotes, endnotes.

Style Guidelines

Please refer to these quick style guidelines when preparing your paper, rather than any published articles or a sample copy.

Please use British or American (-ise) spelling style consistently throughout your manuscript.

Please use double quotation marks, except where “a quotation is ‘within’ a quotation”.

Please note that long quotations should be indented without quotation marks.

The Journal’s Editors and Editorial Board particularly welcome submissions with a critical and empirical view on information systems technology, development, implementation, strategy, management and policy. We encourage first rate research articles by academics, but also case studies and reflective articles by practitioners.

Authors submit their manuscripts online by registering with this journal, logging in, clicking the “New Submission” link, and following the screen instructions through a five-step submission process. If you have trouble logging in to IJITE’s site, please contact us at jredu2021@gmail.com

  • Submission topics must relate to Information Technology and Education, and may be placed in the Research Article section or a Notes sections.
  • Research Articles must have a word count within 5000-8000 words, including all references, appendices, tables, and figures. Submissions that exceed this limit will not be accepted for review.
  • Notes sections are normally below 5000 words.
  • Literature reviews with analyses may be acceptable with a large number of references that exceed the word limit; however, they must be clearly labelled.
  • Abstract (between 150-250 words) and Keywords (at least 5) must follow the title.
  • Upon submission, all authors and affiliations must be represented in the submission metadata. Author information must be removed from the article for blind review. Replace all author mentions with “Author” and author references with “Deleted for Peer Review.”
  • Tables and figures are encouraged in articles and must be placed within the text.
  • Footnotes are not accepted; however, endnotes can be included at the end of an article as appropriate.
  • Supplemental files are not accepted. Any file that is attached to your submission will be deleted. If you would like to provide supplemental information other than in an Appendix, you may provide a link to an external website for readers to review, but this will not be reviewed or edited by IJITE.
  • APA7 article formatting style, referencing, and double-blind peer review requirements are strictly enforced. Failure to meet the submission guidelines satisfactorily will result in your article being rejected. Authors are expected to read and adhere to the submission guidelines in full. Failure to meet the submission guidelines satisfactorily will result in your article being rejected.
  • By submitting to IJITE, the authors agree to the submission of their article to TurnItIn for the purpose of detecting plagiarism OR confirming originality.

PREPARING FULL-PAPER (RESEARCH ARTICLE) MANUSCRIPTS

A publishable paper should contain the following: Abstract (150-250 words, describing the research problem, the method, the basic findings, the conclusions, and the recommendations); Keywords (at least 4); Introduction (what is the problem?); Research method and/or theory used; If an application or experiment, a description of pool of subject, and how they were chosen; Analysis of research and how results impact theory and practice; Conclusion; and References.

Formatting and Templates

Papers may be submitted in Word or LaTeX formats. Figures should be saved separately from the text. To assist you in preparing your paper, we provide formatting template(s).

Word templates are available for this journal. Please save the template to your hard drive, ready for use.

Please download the IJITE template on the Manuscript Template menu available on the IJITE website.

If you are not able to use the template via the links (or if you have any other template queries) please contact us here.

References

Manuscripts must conform to APA 7th edition standard for both referencing and style. Authors are expected to consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.; 2020).

Follow the author-date method of citation in text. Ensure you provide page numbers for all direct quotes. Prepare an unnumbered reference list in alphabetical order by author. When there is more than one article by the same author(s), list the most recent paper first. References should include the names of all contributing authors. Ensure that all references are accurate and that any references cited in the text also appear in the reference section.

Below are some examples of the basic reference list format:

Citing an Article in a Periodical

Surname, A. A. (year). Article title. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), inclusive page numbers. DOI of link if available.

Example

Grow, G. O. (1994). In defense of the staged self-directed learning model. Adult Education Quarterly, 44(2), 109-115. https://doi.org/10.1177/074171369404400206

Citing a Book

Surname, A. A. (year). Title of book. Publisher. DOI of link if available.

Example

Rogers, E. (1962). Diffusion of innovations. Free Press.

Citing an Edited Book

Surname, A.A. (year). Title of book. In Editor first initial, Editor last name (Ed.), Title of book (pp. xx-xx). Publisher. DOI or link if available.

Example

Ally, M. (2008). Foundations of educational theory for online learning. In T. Anderson (Ed.), The theory and practice of online learning (pp. 15-44). AU Press. https://www.aupress.ca/books/120146-the-theory-and-practice-of-online-learning/

Citing a Conference Proceeding

Surname, A. (year). Conference paper title. In Editor first initial, Editor last name (Ed.), Proceedings Book Title (pp. XX-XX). Place of Publication: Publisher. DOI or link if available.

Example

Nawrot, I., & Doucet, A. (2014). Building engagement for MOOC students: Introducing support for time management on online learning platforms. In C. -W. Chung, A. Broder, K. Shim, & T. Suel (Eds.), Proceedings of the Companion Publication of the 23rd International Conference on World Wide Web (pp. 1077-1082). https://doi.org/10.1145/2567948.2580054

Blog Post

Author, A. (date). Title of document. Publisher. DOI of link if available.

Example

Anderson, T. (2019, April 8). A systematic review of the equiv theory. Virtual Canuck. https://virtualcanuck.ca/2019/04/08/a-systematic-review-of-the-equiv-theory/

Conference Proceeding – Paper

Author, A. (year, month). Title of paper [Paper presentation]. Conference Title, place. DOI of link if available.

Example

Alabbasi, D. (2016, April). WhatsApp, agency and education: The case of female Saudi teachers [Paper presentation]. DEANZ Biennial Conference: Charting Flexible Pathways in Open and Distance Education, Hamilton, NZ. http://flanz.org.nz/conference-proceedings

Proceedings Published in Book Form

Author, A. (year, month, day). Title of paper. In Editor first initial, Editor surname (Ed.), Title of Published Proceedings which may include volume (pp. xx-xx). Publisher. DOI of link if available.

Example

Ostashewski, N., & Henderson, S. (2017, October 17). Creating OER materials - Perspectives of global instructors. In J. Dron & S. Mishra (Eds.), Proceedings of e-learn: World conference on e-learning in corporate, government, healthcare, and higher education (pp. 644-648). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/181241/

Report

Author, A. (year). Title of work (Report No. XX). Publisher. DOI of link if available.

Example

Coventry, L. (1995). Video conferencing in higher education (Report No. 262361293). Support Initiative for Multimedia Applications. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lynne_Coventry/publication/262361293_Video_conferencing_in_higher_education/links/54b3aa980cf26833efce9fe0.pdf

Dissertation

Author, A. (year). Title of doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis (Publication No xx) [Doctoral dissertation or Master’s thesis, awarding institution]. Publisher. DOI of link if available.

Example

Xiao, M. (2007). An empirical study of using Internet-based desktop videoconferencing in an EFL setting (Publication No. AAI3292884) [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. ACM Digital Library. https://dl.acm.org/doi/book/10.5555/1369285  

For more information on citing sources, visit APA Style Help.

Style

Refer to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed., 2020) for guidance on expression (including grammar and ways to reduce bias in language) and style (including punctuation, capitalization, headings, use of quotes, and italics, etc.). It is mandatory that authors adhere to APA7 style in full upon submission.

Language

IJITE accepts articles in English only. Submissions using International, British, or American English spelling are acceptable, but usage should be consistent throughout. Please use spell check for all submissions.

Abbreviations

To abbreviate the name of an organization or agency, use capitals and no periods (e.g., YWCA). For first occurrence of an abbreviated word, provide the full name with the abbreviation following in parentheses. Once introduced in the body of the paper (not abstract), the abbreviation may be used throughout.

ORIGINALITY

Manuscripts submitted for review and possible publication in IJITE must be original material that has not been published nor submitted for review/publication elsewhere.

Publishing Previously Distributed Content

Every article must maintain a high quality of scholarship, must not plagiarize the work of others, must be original and unpublished, and must contribute to the field of open and distributed education scholarship. Articles previously published or under review by another peer review commercial or scholarly publisher are not eligible for publication in IJITE. Using large portions of an author’s previously published works is not permitted.

Articles distributed as conference proceedings or self-published in blogs or institutional repositories should be substantially revised before submission. If your article is derived from a thesis or dissertation, please provide the name of the institution to which it was submitted, the date of the submission, the author(s), and the supervisor. (The editor may ask to review in detail the publication/distribution history of any work to make this determination).

Articles that appeared in conference proceedings or were self-published should acknowledge this distribution history in an endnote. Authors submitting articles that were previously distributed should detail the rationale for review and publication by IJITE in a note to the editor.

Checklist: What to Include

  • Author details. Please ensure all listed authors meet the IJITE authorship criteria. All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the cover page of the manuscript. Where available, please also include ORCiDs and social media handles (Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn). One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, with their email address normally displayed in the article PDF (depending on the journal) and the online article. Authors’ affiliations are the affiliations where the research was conducted. If any of the named co-authors moves affiliation during the peer-review process, the new affiliation can be given as a footnote. Please note that no changes to affiliation can be made after your paper is accepted. Read more on authorship.
  • Should contain an unstructured abstract of 150-250 words. Read tips on writing your abstract.
  • You can opt to include a video abstract with your article. Find out how these can help your work reach a wider audience, and what to think about when filming.
  • Between 3 and 5 keywords. Read making your article more discoverable, including information on choosing a title and search engine optimization.
  • Cover letter. All submissions should include a cover letter. A sample cover letter is provided here.
  • Funding details. Please supply all details required by your funding and grant-awarding bodies as follows:
  • Disclosure statement. This is to acknowledge any financial or non-financial interest that has arisen from the direct applications of your research. If there are no relevant competing interests to declare please state this within the article, for example: The authors report there are no competing interests to declare. Further guidance on what is a conflict of interest and how to disclose it.
  • Supplemental online material. Supplemental material can be a video, dataset, fileset, sound file or anything which supports (and is pertinent to) your paper. We publish supplemental material online via Figshare. Find out more about supplemental material and how to submit it with your article.
  • Figures should be high quality (1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour, at the correct size). Figures should be supplied in one of our preferred file formats: EPS, PS, JPEG, TIFF, or Microsoft Word (DOC or DOCX) files are acceptable for figures that have been drawn in Word. For information relating to other file types, please consult our Submission of electronic artwork document.
  • Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text. Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text. Please supply editable files.
  • If you are submitting your manuscript as a Word document, please ensure that equations are editable. More information about mathematical symbols and equations.
  • Please use SI units (non-italicized).
  • Using Third-Party Material
  • You must obtain the necessary permission to reuse third-party material in your article. The use of short extracts of text and some other types of material is usually permitted, on a limited basis, for the purposes of criticism and review without securing formal permission. If you wish to include any material in your paper for which you do not hold copyright, and which is not covered by this informal agreement, you will need to obtain written permission from the copyright owner prior to submission. More information on requesting permission to reproduce work(s) under copyright.